PORTLAND, ME -- In a 44-page
response to the Maine Public Utilities Commission today, Verizon refused to
confirm or deny cooperation in the illegal National Security Agency program,
arguing that the Public Utilities Commission lacks the authority to investigate
whether Verizon has provided NSA access to its customer records and its
switching machines in Maine.

Verizon also invoked a “state
secrets” argument that national security concerns preclude disclosure of any
information. The state secrets privilege, when properly invoked, permits
the government to block disclosure of information that would cause harm to
national security. The government has increasingly used this privilege to
wrongly dismiss lawsuits that might expose serious wrongdoing and security
lapses, the ACLU said.

“We were surprised to see Verizon make the
state secrets argument because only the government, not private entities, can
assert that privilege,” said Shenna Bellows, Executive Director of the Maine
Civil Liberties Union. “Use of the state secrets argument indicates that
Verizon lawyers may have worked closely with federal government lawyers in
drafting a response to the commission. Both the Public Utilities
Commission and Senators Collins and Snowe should proceed with a thorough
investigation of Verizon’s actions.”

The Maine Civil Liberties Union, acting as intervenors in a Commission complaint
filed by James Cowie on May 8, are seeking a thorough investigation of Verizon.
As an intervenor, the MCLU asserts that the organization has a vested interest
in the outcome of the proceedings and could be impacted by that outcome. The complaint calls on the Commission to investigate whether Verizon
has allowed the NSA access to customer e-mail and phone communications.
The complaint also questions whether circuits have been installed in any Verizon
facilities within Maine to facilitate NSA surveillance and whether the records
of Maine residents have been included in any datamining samples provided to the
NSA.

On May 15, in response to the complaint, the Public
Utilities Commission issued a request that Verizon “address, in its response to
the complaint, the extent to which the actions alleged in the complaint and in
the USA Today article implicate the privacy rights of Maine telephone service
subscribers described by 35-A M.R.S.A. § 7101-A.”

“I’m dumbfounded
that this corporation is trying to hide behind the federal government’s state
secrets privilege,” said James Cowie, a MCLU member and lead complainant.
“Verizon’s response reads like it came from the government, instead of our local
telephone company. I hope Senators Snowe and Collins would be concerned
about this as well.”

News reports indicate that at least three
telecommunications companies -- Verizon, BellSouth, and AT&T -- have
complied with requests from the NSA to turn over the calling records of millions
of customers across the nation. Verizon subsequently issued a narrowly
tailored denial of participation. Verizon’s response to the Commission
today appears to undercut its earlier statements because it does not clearly
deny participation in the program, the ACLU said.

“Mainers deserve to
know if calls are being monitored by the government,” said Shenna Bellows,
Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, “No one – not the federal
government and not Verizon – is above the law.”

Congress also has the
authority to investigate the National Security Agency surveillance
program. To date, however, neither Senator Collins nor Senator Snowe have
called for such an investigation.